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Dec. 12, 2018

Royal Holloway postgrad wins prestigious EPSRC award

Royal HollowayA postgraduate research student at Royal Holloway University of London has won a prestigious award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s (EPSRC) Connected Nation Pioneers competition.

Thyla van der Merwe – who is undertaking her postgraduate research at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security at Royal Holloway – won the award for the Safe and Secure Cyber Society category for her work with the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol.

TLS protocol secures communications on the web and is used by millions of people worldwide. It protects online purchases, Facebook logins, and instant messages, but recently TLS has suffered practical attacks, leading the creators of the protocol, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), to develop a new version of the protocol, TLS 1.3. 

Thyla’s research has contributed to this new version, she explains, “The Transport Layer Security protocol is the de facto means for securing the web and is used by millions, if not billions of people on a daily basis. This award recognises not only the importance of this critical protocol, but also all of the hard work done by the researchers and industry professionals who have contributed to its development.”

Director of the EPSRC CDT in Cyber Security at Royal Holloway, Professor Keith Martin, adds: “Thyla is an absolute star. It's one thing conducting original and meaningful research, but quite another being able to communicate the importance of the work in clear, imaginative, and prize-winning ways. We are proud that the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security at Royal Holloway has provided a research environment which enables exceptional talents to flourish.”

The Connected Nation Pioneers Competition aims to recognise and celebrate exceptional UK doctoral research students in the digital and ICT arena. It is organised by EPSRC with sponsorship from major industry partners. 

Find out more about postgraduate study at Royal Holloway University of London.

Looking for funding for postgraduate studies? Check out the exclusive bursaries on offer from Postgrad Solutions.  

Content added on 12th December 2018. 

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